"...... threatened legal action against Southampton pub The Hobbit back in March, serving it with a cease and desist order over its name. The pub has been trading for more than 20 years"

**** the Tolkien estate.

No, no, no. It's not the Tolkien estate that applied a cease and desist, it was one of the three companies that where given rights to produce products. Perhaps one could argue that they should / should have stepped in. However, if they were unawares then how would they know to?